There's a big thread on this over at alt.tv.scifi.channel.....
Bonnie Hammer: "We have a built-in audience"
Heh. My main reply:
Mac Breck Jul 10, 7:56 pm
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.tv, alt.tv.scifi.channel
From: "Mac Breck" <macthevor...@yahoo.com> - Find messages by this author
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 19:56:18 -0400
Local: Sun,Jul 10 2005 7:56 pm
Subject: Re: Bonnie Hammer: "We have a built-in audience"
"Straker" <sky.di...@moonbase.alpha> wrote in message
news:100720051552415090%sky.diver@moonbase.alpha...
> The New York Times
> July 10, 2005
> B Movies Invade Your TV!
> By LEWIS BEALE
> "ATTACK OF THE SABRETOOTH." "Bloodsuckers." "The Man With the Screaming
> Brain." And, most indelible of all, "Mansquito."
> A combination of outrageous genre concepts, low-budget filmmaking and
> sensationalized titles like the roll call above are all part of the Sci
> Fi Channel's attempt to establish a presence on Saturday nights, when a
> good number of potential viewers are out, asleep or watching reruns.
> The programming strategy has been a major success, with numbers that
> far exceed anyone's expectations.
Well, trash often attracts an unexpected number of people. People stare
at car crashes too.
> "Alien Apocalypse," Sci Fi's biggest Saturday hit, attracted 2.7
> million viewers in March. That may be a pittance for CBS or NBC, but it
> constitutes a major audience for a niche network. And besides, said
> Steve Sternberg, a television analyst at MagnaGlobal USA, "Friday and
> Saturday have become very weak nights for the broadcast networks,"
> which, he explained, "have not been able to draw enough viewers with
> original entertainment series. Cable networks can flourish with much
> smaller audiences. Original horror and sci-fi movies seem like the
> perfect programming for Saturday night."
> "They're good at the 'D' word, demographics," said Bruce Campbell, a
> star of B movies who also wrote, directed and starred in the "Screaming
> Brain" film,
"The Man With the Screaming Brain" ....must have seen a Sci-Fi Channel
original movie. That'd do it. LOL!
> to be shown in September. "I think they're
> micromarketing," he said, "which in this fragmented world makes sense.
> They're saying, 'Who's at home on Saturday night?' "
> The answer might be surprising. Nearly half of Sci Fi's audience is
> female, and in the highly sought-after 25-to-54-year-old demographic
> category, Sci Fi is the No. 4 basic cable network on Saturdays, behind
> TNT, USA and TBS.
> Sci Fi's foray into Saturday night mayhem began in 2002, when network
> executives realized that cheap,
That's CHEAP, in all of it's meanings, in letters 10 feet tall.
> independently made genre pictures, an
> important element of their programming mix, were hardly being produced
> any more. So, said Tom Vitale, the Sci Fi Channel's senior vice
> president for original movies "We had a choice of recycling older
> movies or going out and trying to create original movies ourselves.
Hmmm, those are the only two choices? How about producing one half or
one quarter as many movies for double to four times the budget each?
The results might be a tad more respectable. Then, a better class of
writer might be able to be attracted.
> We
> went back to these producers who made genre movies, and asked them if
> they wanted to make them with us."
So they went for ULTRA CHEAP and large volume. Well, the Hell with
quality; who needs that? <S>
> People like Ken Badish jumped at the chance. Mr. Badish's company,
> Active Entertainment, will have produced nine Sci Fi movies by the end
> of 2005, high-concept features like "Mansquito" (experiment gone awry
> creates man-mosquito hybrid!), and "Alien Lockdown" (government science
> produces horrific slime thing!).
> The most important element of a Sci Fi film, Mr. Badish said, "is a
> topical film that has relevance to our audience."
> "In a film coming up," he added, "stem cells are key to the plot; in
> another, it's mad cow disease. Secondly, there's a good story. Like
> we're shooting a 'Jaws'-kind of movie featuring a giant squid. We make
> a reasonable use of C.G.I., because the audience wants that escapist
> thing. And we add emotional content, so the audience can feel for the characters."
> Often that amounts to borrowing shamelessly from works like "Alien,"
> "The Fly" and "The Thing" and then adding ideas gleaned from Scientific American or Wired.
...and adds bad acting, bad writing, and almost nonexistent production
values. It's called spoiling a good idea, assuming a hint of a good
idea was there to begin with.
> Shot on budgets ranging from $1 million to $2 million, Sci Fi's movies
ULTRA cheap.
> are made in money-saving locales like Bulgaria, Romania and Missouri.
Now there's an odd grouping.
> They're cast with B-list celebrities like Luke Perry and Stephen
> Baldwin, with the occasional big-picture actors - Sean Astin and John
> Rhys-Davies of "Lord of the Rings" - making an appearance. The network
> pays $750,000 for domestic TV rights, and the producers make their
> money back through international and DVD sales.
> But are the films any good?
Uh, no. Hell no.
> Critics have not found much to praise,
> though some seem to have tried pretty hard. Virginia Heffernan of The
> New York Times said "Chupacabra: Dark Seas" (monster runs amok on a
> cruise liner!) was "founded on broad clichés, overacted and clumsily
> blocked." But she added that the casting of serious actors like Mr.
> Rhys-Davies and Giancarlo Esposito "provides evidence of self-respect,"
> that "someone has tried to make a coherent, passionate and traditional
> B movie." Entertainment Weekly opened one of its reviews by noting,
> "There are better things on tonight, but none are called 'Mansquito.'
Giancarlo Esposito? Who??? OK, I recognize the face from "Harley
Davidson and the Marlboro Man." As for Rhys-Davies, he's probably sorry
and embarrassed.
> The critics' disfavor doesn't seem to bother the folks behind the
> films, who have no pretensions to high art. Bonnie Hammer, the Sci Fi
> Channel president, likes to refer to the pictures as "popcorn movies
> for those who love the genre," adding, "Viewers come for the ride;
> it's a guilty pleasure."
If they can stand the stench.
> Jeff Beach, whose Unified Film Organization
Oh, brother! Unified Film Organization, the ones who gave us such gems
as:
<u>Title and IMDB Vote Rating </u>
Crimson Force (2005) (TV) ... 3.1
Darklight (2004) (TV) ... 4.5
P.I.: Post Impact (2004) ... 3.4
Dragon Storm (2004) (TV) ... 3.7
Phantom Force (2004) (TV) ... 4.6
(The director, Christian McIntire, fought and lost to have his name
removed from the film after disagreements with producers and the Sci-Fi
Channel over script changes and interference in the story and
production.)
Epoch: Evolution (2003) (TV) ... 4.3
Deep Shock (2003) ... 2.8
Silent Warnings (2003) (V) ... 4.1
Interceptor Force 2 (2002) (TV) ... 4.1
(Personally, I gave it a 1.)
Dark Descent (2002) ... 3.3
Landspeed (2002) ... 4.6
Lost Voyage (2001) (TV) ... 4.6
Python (2000) ... 3.4
(I turned it off 10 or 15 minutes into it. Ugh! That was a waste of
electricity.)
Deep Core (2000) ... 3.2
Under Pressure (2000) ... 3.7
Falcon Down (2000) ... 4.4
Storm (1999) ... 4.0
Interceptors (1999) ... 3.3
( Personally, I gave it a 1.)
Total Reality (1997) ... 4.2
Velocity Trap (1997) ... 3.9
(Personally, I gave it a 2.)
Darkdrive (1996) ... 2.9
> has made 20 films for the network, calls them "high-concept
> action-adventure movies with elements that are fun, whether a creature
> or a disaster."
> "B movies don't mean bad," said Mr. Campbell
It does, where Unified Film Organization is involved.
>, who starred in the
> classic "Evil Dead" films. "They're just operating on a limited budget
> and are trying to be entertaining. You go to the Sci Fi Channel, you
> see a high-energy thing."
Well, Bruce Campbell being in it could make almost anything watchable.
> And viewers are seeing a lot of them. The channel produced one original
> movie in 2002. This year there will be 23.
Hmmm, ~$35 million wasted.
> Next year, 28.
<shakes head> ~$42 million more wasted.
I can think of much better uses for ~$77 million to be used for Sci-Fi
Channel programming:
Re-start/fix "Crusade."
Re-start "Brimstone."
Re-start "Strange Luck."
Re-start "Special Unit 2."
Re-start "The Tick" (live action with Patrick Warburton).
> That's more than some major studios produce,
> and at a bargain basement price of $21 million - total.
Yes, loads and loads of shite. Makes me want to watch that channel. NOT!!!
> Coming soon: "Heat Stroke" (aliens are producing global warming!),
> "Magma" (government project goes awry; Earth's core begins to
> overheat!) and "Black Hole Terror" (black hole threatens to swallow the
> Midwest!).
Maybe it could swallow just one group of offices in NYC, the SFC offices? :devil: :devil: :devil: Seems tailor made for Galen's Spell of Destruction (Babylon 5 - The Passing of the Technomages, books 1 thru 3).
> Sci Fi has also announced "Fire Alien," a fire-breathing
> alien feature starring - who else? - William Shatner.
> Even Internet hoaxes can lead to Sci Fi movie ideas. Last April, a
> bogus report circulated about a strain of malaria that quickly killed
> its victims and then restarted their hearts, turning them into violent
> zombies for several hours. Now in development at the Sci Fi Channel: a
> movie with the possible titles "Zombie Resurrection" or "Revenge of the
> Undead."
> All this, and the promotional budget is virtually nil. "In traditional
> movies of the week you would have to promote it and market it each
> week," Ms. Hammer said. "We have a built-in audience. Our fans will
> come to us first, so we don't have to market it."
They should be EMBARRASSED to market it.
> But, Mr. Vitale added, Sci Fi is also "trying to reach a mainstream TV audience."
With shite?
> He added: "Look at CBS: they did 'Spring Break Shark Attack.'
Yeah, sunk to Sciffy's level, not something to be proud of. 'Spring Break Shark Attack.' was the butt of jokes on last night's "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson." Maybe that's something the Sci-Fi Chanel can aspire to, to be the butt of broadcast network jokes? :devil:
:devil:
> We are sort of zigging where the other networks are zagging.
He's sort of dizzy.
> If you are home on Saturday night, you are looking for that escapist
> experience."
You get escapist experience on ***FRIDAY*** nights on Sci-Fi.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
---
> Hammer's statements about how fans will come to them and they don't
> need to market the movies pretty much sums up her contempt for the
> audience. We must be so desperate that we'll watch anything.
That's what she thinks. In my case, she's utterly wrong.
> And what would be so wrong with recycling older movies?
Nothing at all.
How about some newer movies like "Eight Legged Freaks" (2002)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271367/ ? I rented the DVD and was pleasantly surprised. That was done in the spirit of the old B-movies. THAT was likeable. Hell, I even watched/listened all of the special features.
How about "Pitch Black" and "The Chronicles of Riddick" (Director's Cut)? I bought TCoR, and watched/listened to all of the special features of that disc, too. It wasn't bad. Not bad at all. Three or
four orders of magnitude better than the average Sci-Fi original movie. It had some GOOD stars (Colm Feore[1], Judi Dench, and Alexa Davalos. I'm starting to become a Vin Diesel fan because of these two movies. I even rented "The Pacifier." <g>)
> There are so
> many old SF, fantasy and horror movies out there that they'd have
> enough to show on Saturday night for years without any repeats. Some of
> us remember the salad days of Chiller Theatre and Creature Feature on
> Saturday nights.
Chiller Theater in Pittsburgh, PA with 'Chilly Billy' Cardille, oh yes.
[1] Man, that guy has a presence. (in evidence in Stephen King's "Storm of the Century" and "The Chronicles of Riddick" director's cut) Makes me want to seek out his other movies.
--
Mac Breck (KoshN)
-------------------------------
"Brimstone" (1998)
[As Stone goes through someone's mailbox]
Ashe: Pardon me for interrupting you here, but that happens to be a
federal crime. Is that within your jurisdiction, too?
Ezekiel Stone: I answer to a lower power.